This and that and the other

Saturday several of us bloggers were privileged to attend a gathering at Cher's. The group included Holly, Dot, Michelle and me. Both Dot and Michelle have already written about the great time we had, so I'll just add my two cents. Cher was a marvelous hostess, keeping us supplied with coffee and tea and providing a great lunch as well as a tour of both her sewing and her fabric rooms. Show and tell was marvelous, with both Cher and Dot sharing marvelous quilts of all sizes. We got to see the fun sampler that Holly is currently binding, and I brought a few things to share as well. The time went way too quickly, and I'm sure we will get together again before too many months have passed. From left to right in the picture - Cher, Dot, Michelle, and me. Unfortunately Holly had to leave early so she wasn't there when Cher's sweetie returned home and was pressed into service as photographer.

I worked on my hand quilting both Friday evening at guild sew frenzy and yesterday at Cher's gathering. Today I finished it while watching the Mariners lose - once again - and then Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It's not been that long since I had my own Harry Potter marathon, but Fred is having one now so I joined him so I could keep quilting. This is a very old UFO - pieced in 1991 as a class sample to advertise a class I was teaching at Daisy Kingdom in Portland, Oregon. I started hand quilting the white squares a few years later, but put it away after I'd done four or five. Last year I started hand quilting again, first finishing my Fireworks quilt and then going back to this one. I decided immediately that once I finished quilting the flowers - if that's what they are - I would put this on the longarm to finish it. I'm going to load it tomorrow morning, and hopefully will finish the quilting tomorrow also. I've not finished a UFO since sometime in March, and I'm creeping much too close to the top of the queens list for the Stashbusters UFO challenge. My goal is to have this one done by the end of the week. Don't know what I'll do with it then other than add it to the stack of finished quilts!

Today I also made two Civil War blocks. I've not worked on them for a couple weeks and was really feeling the urge to get back to them. I've decided to make both quilts now that my friend Kathie has gifted me with a few more Abe Lincolns, so I think I'll focus on finishing the blocks in the first book before moving on to more blocks in the Love Letters book. Here are Conscript Law and Merchantable Goods. Notice the green fabric with pink roses in the second block - the same fabric Rosemary Youngs used in her block. This is an OLD fabric - I know just when it came out because I used it's companion print in a Daisy Kingdom sample in 1991. I have a yard, and this is the first time I've used it! It was so much fun to be making these blocks again!

Many of you asked about the seam guide I use on my featherweight. I'm not sure where I learned about this marvelous gadget - either online or in a magazine - but I think it's worth it's weight in gold. It's designed particularly for the featherweight. It has replaced my "wall" of masking tape and little post-it notes that I've used for years and years. It is available from The Buggy Barn - here is a link to the correct page on their website. If you piece on a featherweight then you really need this little gadget!